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RCMP probe murder of girl, 14

The teenage girl whose body was found last month in a remote area near the Coquihalla Highway has now been identified by the RCMP as 14-year-old Chelsey Kayla Dawn Acorn.

The girl had been reported missing after running away from her foster home in Abbotsford last June.

Her shallow grave was found by hikers on April 8 about 100 metres off the highway east of Hope.

RCMP say they are treating the girl's death as a homicide, and have assigned 16 investigators to the case.

Insp. Wayne Rideout of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said they want to retrace her steps after she fled.

"It's absolutely critical at this stage of the investigation that we get every last piece of information about who she was with, who she was friends with, who she was in contact with and where she may have stayed during the summer and fall of 2005."

The girl's body was found in this wooded area, about 100 metres from the Coquihalla Highway. (CBC)

Chelsey had been in foster care for several years, and this wasn't the first time she had run away. She went missing during the entire summer of 2004.

Abbotsford police Sgt. Brett Crosby-Jones said her name was in the chronic missing persons database, and had been re-flagged as a child vulnerable to exploitation.